SPECIAL REPORT: The Future of Your Construction Company. How and when to walk away.

In the wake of the Great Recession, many baby boomer contractors are planning their business’s futures.

Specifically, is this the end? And if so, should I sell? Liquidate? Pass it on?

Even if the end isn’t in your near future, our four-part Special Report will get you well in the way to forming a sensible exit strategy for when that day comes.

These articles cover a number of companies across the United States facing the unique rigors of owning a construction business in this day and time. Incorporated into each article are the responses to several poll questions from our readers regarding exit strategies. The responses make for an interesting complement to the articles and provide the perspective of our average reader against the experiences and advice from the subjects in our stories.

Read on below for a brief description of, and links to, each article in our four-part series.

Part I: How 2 construction companies—one large, one small—decided to close their doors: RaCON and Triangle Excavators are separated by 800 miles and $122 million in revenue each year. Their common ground is the deep impact the Great Recession had on their businesses. However, their reasons for shutting down illustrate the varied difficulties contractors have faced in recovering from the downturn.

Part II: How 5 construction companies are passing the baton to the next generation: We gathered the stories of five different contractors who are passing down, or considering passing down, their construction business to their children. Some of the companies are being passed to a new generation for the first time, some for the third. But each has its unique challenges. These contractors detailed those challenges and had quite a bit of advice for other contractors considering the move.

Part III: When selling is your best option: If you feel like it’s time to sell your construction business, the location of your company and its value factor in greatly when determining its attractiveness to potential buyers. To help you determine if it’s time to sell, we outline the process of selling a construction business from the audit, to creating a buyer “hit list.”

Part IV: Choosing who to sell your construction business to and when: Once you’ve decided you’ve got a good chance at selling your business, the next step is choosing a buyer. Should you sell to a current employee or an outside buyer? Does your employees’ opinion of a potential buyer matter? We go through every consideration you need to make before the day of sale.